Chaire de recherche du Canada en ÉPI

Team

I have a Master's degree in Political Science (specialization in Globalization and Governance) obtained at Sciences Po Lyon (France) in April 2014.

I worked for two years as a project coordinator at the non-governmental organization PIDES in Mexico city. I led environmental projects and focused on urban issues and social innovation.

I am currently a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Université Laval (Québec, Canada). My dissertation project is on the emergence of change in complex systems and studies more specifically transnational municipal networks in global climate governance.

I am currently in charge of the undergraduate course on Environmental Policies. I am also a teaching assistant in the Introduction to Sustainable Development undergraduate course offered by the Political Science Department.

Furthermore, I have some experience as a research assistant. I have recently worked with Professor Jean Mercier on a research project on Sustainable Transportation Policies in the Americas and I have also worked with Professor Geneviève Cloutier, who teaches Urban Studies, on a research project on local experiments of adaptation governance.

In 2016, I received two grants from the Faculty of Social Science of Université Laval in order to attend different international methods workshops.

In 2017, I was awarded the Excellence Grant for PhD students offered by the Hydro-Québec Institute on the Environment, Development and Society. I also received the Excellence Grant for PhD students of the Faculty Fund of Teaching and Research (FFER) awarded by the Faculty of Social Science of Université Laval.

In 2018, I received a Grant offered by the Jean-Pierre Derriennic Fund and an Excellence Research Grant offered by the Political Science Department. I was also granted a two-year PhD training grant offered by the Québec Research Fund on Society and Culture.

Research interest

Teaching

Teaching assistant to the Introduction to Sustainable Development course for undergraduate students

Teaching assistant to the Political Regime course for undergraduate students

Instructor to the Environmental Policies course for undergraduate students

Current research project

The emergence of change in a path-dependent system: the innovation role of Transnational Municipal Networks in global climate governance.
This project is focusing on the interactions of transnational city networks working on climate issues and attempts to understand how they may facilitate the emergence of innovative governance instruments in the system of global climate governance.

Greening projects lead by civic actors at the urban scale spur transformation through example and through gradual adjustment of processes. Questions remain on how such projects are put into action and on what make them work. How do civic experiments reflect the ongoing change in urban governance and practices? We focus on a qualitative study of two greening initiatives lead by civic groups in Quebec City (Quebec, Canada). The case studies are analysed through the lens of theories that approach civic action and climate experiments as new modes of urban governance. We conclude that civil society groups have the capacity to intervene directly on the urban environment in order to enhance its quality. Findings reveal that informal greening initiatives contribute to a civic narrative in favour of adaptation to climate change at the local scale.

Complexity is a twenty-first century concept that is both popular and controversial. It has gradually become a buzzword in global governance studies. The increase in the number of populations of organisations and in the total number of actors participating in global politics has indeed led scholars to talk about a complexifying global governance system. This is particularly true in earth system governance studies, where the multiplication of non-state actors has triggered a variety of works focusing on their interdependence and impact on global environmental governance. However, complexity does not necessarily grow with the rise of interconnected elements in the system. Moreover, many seem to confuse complexity with complicatedness. Using a complexity framework would resolve these issues. However, many scholars are still reluctant to do so. How may complexity approaches help us improve our understanding of global climate governance?
This paper advocates for the application of complex systems approaches in the analysis of global climate governance. Several scholars have started to use them in related questions, whether in a general manner, or to conceptualize more specific questions like environmental governance, experimental climate governance, or transnational climate governance. However, there have been few studies of the complex system of global climate governance. It is argued here that these are both relevant and useful.
First, regarding the relevance, global climate governance has a multiplicity of interacting and interdependent elements. It is also nonlinear and hierarchical, because of its numerous levels going from the global to the micro creating the possibility of feedback and strange loops. Finally, it is open: its borders are porous and allow for interactions with actors coming from other systems. All of this makes the system unpredictable and complex.
Second, regarding the usefulness, this perspective could bring new insights on the understanding of global climate governance. More specifically, by acknowledging the nonlinearity and unpredictability of the system, we could accept the uncertainty of the world we live in and of our own findings. This could help us diverge from traditional but often failing goals such as prediction, and redefine our research strategies to make them more effective.
Overall, this paper seeks to offer a different way of observing global climate governance. It thus hopes to foster novel ideas and theories on the ways to analyse and understand governance complex systems and contribute to the broader field of earth system governance.

In this essay, I advocate for the use of an integrated approach to study networks as both structures and actors. The study of networks has gained a lot of interest in global environmental governance studies and related fields. Witnessing transnational processes that might influence world politics, scholars have looked at a variety of phenomena, among which epistemic communities, transnational advocacy networks or public-private partnerships (Bouteligier 2013, Andonova et al. 2009, Keck and Sikkink 1998, Haas 1992, 1990). Recently, they have also applied the network lens to global environmental governance. However, there is still room for investigation. Indeed, scholars of global environmental governance have often thought of networks as structures (e.g. Bansard et al. 2016, Giest and Howlett 2013) or as actors (Hakelberg 2014, Andonova et al. 2009). Few studies have analysed them as both. How can an integrated perspective of networks as structures and actors improve our understanding of the influence of networks in earth system governance?

To answer this question, the example of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) engaged in climate action proves interesting. As structures, TMNs influence the behaviour of their city members, guiding them toward climate action and resilience. Some cities find themselves in better positions than others in the network and become more powerful. As actors, TMNs develop strategies to gain weight in the system of global climate governance. I elaborate on the case of 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), a TMN founded in 2013 by The Rockefeller Foundation to work on urban resilience. In five years, 100RC has managed to become a prominent actor of the system. Inside its network of cities, it has oriented the behaviour of its members towards the design and implementation of resilience projects and the use of specific governance tools. Outside of it, it has partnered with major TMNs and non-TMN actors and become part of global initiatives dealing with climate action. To understand its rise, we must consider both the capacity of 100RC to connect to specific external actors and its internal structure of cities.

This essay thus joins the social sciences agent-structure debate by focusing on the integrated perspective of networks. Furthermore, it seeks to bring new insights on TMNs, a rather recent phenomenon whose influence we are still trying to measure. Finally, as it focuses on one entity of global climate governance, it hopes to offer an innovative contribution to questions dealing with agency and architectures of earth system governance.

Despite the global call for action, international actors have seemed unable to provide effective solutions to the ‘wicked problem’ of climate change. Overall, the global climate
governance system initiated at the end of the 1980s has hardly evolved and is often described as locked. Recently, however, distinct actors have started to offer new answers to the governing of climate. Among them, Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) claim that ‘while nations talk, cities act’ and promote the role of local actors at the global level. Although their direct effect on mitigation has been questioned, I argue that TMNs may have an indirect effect on the system through the creation of governance tools of new generation. This paper thus tackles the general question of how a system may change.
In that sense, I use a theoretical framework based on complexity approaches and network theory that gives an understanding of the emergence and diffusion of innovation. I
then conduct a case study of 100 Resilient Cities, a recent TMN that has rapidly become a central actor within the network of TMNs. Finally, I present some prospects of the emergence of these actors that lack legal authority and financial resources in global climate governance.

Over the last decades, the interest in networks in International Relations has dramatically increased. Witnessing a variety of transnational processes in world politics, scholars have studied epistemic communities, transnational advocacy networks or intergovernmental policy networks, among others. Recently, they have also applied the network lens to global climate governance, looking at different entities as structures or as actors. However, few studies have analysed them as both. This paper argues that networks can be seen simultaneously as constraining structures and purposeful and influential agents. In that sense, the case of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) engaged in climate action proves interesting. As structures, TMNs successfully connect cities together and with other actors in complex arrangements where power logics are at play. As actors, they also develop strategies to reach and influence distinct international and transnational actors. The example of 100 Resilient Cities shows these processes result from well-thought strategies aimed at influencing global climate governance. It also underlines how the network as a whole affects its members which in turn shape it through their decisions and actions. Entering the agent-structure debate in an innovative way, this paper overall seeks to engage in a fruitful reflection on networks in IR.

A variety of studies on global governance, whether they are built on theories of multilevel governance, regime complexes or organisational ecology, increasingly refer to the phrase “institutional complexity”. Doing so, they usually recognise the increasing number of institutions in global governance, their diversity and their interdependence. Overall, they seek to make sense of a system which is harder and harder to explain and predict. However, most of the time, the term complexity is used as a buzzword that lacks fundamental principles lying behind the concept as applied in several theoretical approaches. Complex issues are just seen as complicated ones. In these cases, talking about institutional complexity does not add to the study of global governance. However, it could and thus should. How can “institutional complexity” contribute to our
understanding and eventually to our practice of global governance?
This think-piece argues that we need to go beyond the phrase and go back to theory to make the most of “institutional complexity”. Integrating principles from the literature on complex systems, we can build a powerful analytical concept. To this end, this work proposes a preliminary three-level definition of institutional complexity based on complex systems thinking. More specifically, it builds on features of the complex system such as interconnectedness of its elements, nonlinearity and feedback loops, and openness. In what regards its properties, self-organisation, adaptability and unpredictability, are also considered. This leads to a structuring of the concept around a basic, a secondary and an indicator levels. A discussion of this effort then follows. Its main goal is to underscore the potential of the concept of institutional complexity for making several contributions to the study of global governance. On the theoretical side, this preliminary definition may encourage the elaboration of more structured theories of change in the current global governance system. Epistemologically, it could help us move away from our prediction goals and embrace uncertainty by focusing on the construction of plausible scenarios. These may later facilitate our policy interventions. Finally, regarding methodology, an analytical definition of institutional complexity may facilitate our using appropriate methods that most particularly focus on causal complexity and interconnections. This work is only a preliminary reflection but it hopes to foster new ideas on the way to analyse and understand institutional complexity.

This paper analyses the innovation property of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) to understand how it may affect global climate governance and to question the prospects for the allocation and access to climate governance benefits and burdens.

Global climate governance has traditionally been led by the most powerful actors of the system, i.e. Western industrialized states and intergovernmental organisations that have set the norms ruling the governing of climate. However, as COP21 underlined, other actors are now participating in these issues, such as cities, often represented by TMNs. The rise of TMNs, alliances cities join voluntarily to exchange on a variety of urban issues, learn and implement best practices, and be represented globally, has triggered the interest of scholars. Some have shown that TMNs enable cities to act as technical and normative leaders on the global climate scene. Others have emphasized their role in promoting and encouraging local climate action and providing cities with informational, financial and political resources. Finally, studies have underscored their ability to produce innovation in climate governance, fostering a reflection on who governs and how. As they combine institutional and market-based elements to elaborate actions, TMNs are also said to generate a new system of governance from the middle.

However, innovation and its effects still need to be clearly defined and traced. Acknowledging this innovation property, we must precise what it is that TMNs do differently
from states. Is it their climate action, their practice of governance or the set of norms they diffuse that is innovative? And how does it rise and diffuse in climate governance? To start answering these questions, I use a theoretical framework based on complexity thinking as it brings interesting inputs to explain the emergence and diffusion of innovation. Through a case study and network analysis of 100 Resilient Cities focusing on the instruments it uses and the interactions it has with its member cities and its partners, I observe how innovation rises from the TMN and how it may possibly diffuse in the complex system of global climate governance. This type of empirical study, which analyses the interactions of TMNs, has, to my knowledge, rarely been done, which makes this paper an interesting contribution to studies on TMNs. On a more general level, this work may help us understand if TMNs, as new actors of global climate governance with the potential to affect its current functioning, may be able to reallocate its benefits and burdens.

In this working paper, I analyse Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) as elements of the complex system of climate governance and assess their potential for innovation through the study of their governance instruments. Over the recent period, climate governance has experienced the rise of sub-state and non-state actors. Among them, TMNs, alliances cities create and or integrate to develop their climate action and be represented at the global scale, have received a lot of attention. Scholars have underlined their role in promoting local climate action and providing cities with cognitive, financial and political resources. They have also claimed their ability to bring innovation to climate governance by questioning who governs and how. Others imply that by combining institutional and market-based elements to elaborate and implement their actions, they generate a new system of governance from the middle. However, these efforts to examine the innovation role of TMNs need to be strengthened, considering the increasing complexity of the environment. More specifically, we must understand what TMNs do differently and how they may manage to change practices in the complex system of climate governance. To this end, this paper focuses on the governance instruments used by TMNs to steer their members towards climate action. Whereas states and intergovernmental organizations usually recur to regulatory and economic instruments, displaying a traditional vision of authority, TMNs seem to favour instruments based on nodal and organizational resources. In that sense, their steering would be softer and more indirect. The prospects of this innovation are then discussed to understand whether it might represent an effective alternative to the current managing of climate issues. Envisioning climate governance itself as a complex system, this paper analyses how change may emerge and diffuse in nonlinear ways to challenge dominant modes of governing. It will thus represent an interesting contribution to the discussion of the diverse strategies for effective environmental governance.